Luke's Letter May 25, 2009

Hola!!!
Mon, 25 May 2009

Hey Mom and Dad!
Thank you so much for the 2 letters. They were wonderful, also let grandma carol, Coach T, Brittany, and matt park know that I received their emails. Actually I guess I could email grandma but I dunno if I´ll have time so if you could just let them know.

So I was stupid and didn´t get birthday cards while I was in the MTC for Emma and Zoey, so please wish them happy birthday for me. Today is Zoey´s and Wednesday is Emma´s right? I´m sure they both got lots of good presents. Actually it already sounds like Emma got some good ones.

The Chileans do speak pretty fast, Coach T says that Mexicans speak faster and worse, but our teachers in the MTC just said they had worse grammar but speak slower, but I guess I´ll find out when I get back. They still speak super fast here, but everyday I feel like I´m getting to understand just a little more and a little more. So that is good. We have a baptism this Saturday, it is that lady I told you about, how they were waiting for the divorce to go through and stuff. So they`re getting married Friday night and she´s getting baptized sat. Their family is really amazing and fun to be with.

I am able to print of letters here if I want to, it cost a little money but I still can I´m pretty sure. It only costs like 70 pesos a page or something so its no problem.

Its really nice to have a papita here. He picks up our laundry on Tuesday and gets it back to us on Saturday is the norm I guess, but since we arrived here on like a Wednesday, we´re a little out of whack. So we run short on socks and need to buy some more. But its really nice that he also brings us lunch about every day too. He´s a really cool guy.

That kinda stinks about Julie, I hope its not too serious and that it will be able to be taken care of in an easy way. There is a member here who we go visit once in a while because she never makes it to church because she has a daughter who is disabled pretty badly. She´s like Natalie from Journeys. She always makes us delicious juice though. We had cantelope juice the other day and that was actually pretty good.

Thank you for letting me know a little bit about sports dad. I was wondering how things were going. I´m surprised to see Orlando doing so well, it is probably with the help of Rafer Alston I´m guessing, unless he´s hurt or something. I think a lebron vs kobe finals would be pretty sweet to watch. That stinks about that trip that mom can´t go on. That´s dumb you can´t take a spouse with you… like… what do they expect? Good job for selling enough to be able to go on that though. Hopefully you´ll find something good to do, like maybe they´ll have4 a ping pong table and you´ll finally catch up to me or something haha. That is cool about Bryan´s and Karsten´s calls. I´m excited for them. There are a few missionaries here that are from Colombia and are pretty cool.

Arica is one of the nicer cities in Chile, at least our sector is according to my companion. There are dogs, but he says that there isn´t nearly as many dogs here as in other sectors. I had one nip at my leg the other day but it just surprised me more than anything. So we threw rocks at it. It was a crazy dog. It was the only dog that has even attempted to come at us so far. My companion laughed though cause he´s been out 14 months and hasn´t been bit once so thought it was funny I was in like the first 2 weeks. We have quite a few missionaries in this area, there are 2 zones really close cause we were going to get together with the other one today for a p-day acticvitiy but it just ended up being ours. Our zone has about 16 missionaries in it I think, counting 2 sisters who are in our district of 6. We do shopping here on pday of course, and there is a big store here called Lider, which is like a walmart. Or at least a fred Meyers or something. Its pretty big. Of course there are lots of little stores along the streets and stuff that sell bread and what not.

The teaching here is going well I think. I obviously still can´t speak or understand a whole lot, but I´m able to teach little sections of some lessons, and can always bear my testimony at least enough. I can tell that some people have a hard time understanding me though. The most frustrating part for me is that I´ll understand what´s going on and I´ll have something I want to say, or a scripture I want to find but don´t know exactly where it is, so I can´t really find it in my Spanish scriptures cause I don´t have them marked enough, or I don´t know how to express what I want to say to the investigator. That part is frustrating. Its also hard for me to do contacts in the street, because I can say the first initial part and make contact but once they say something my companion has to take over because I have no idea what they´re saying, or I say sí at the wrong time. That happens a lot, I just nod my head and say sí to their questions and I really have no idea what they´re saying. Its funny.

This week I had a first though, we knocked on a door and got let in! Actually it happened twice in that day, it was neat. We taught a lesson to them and even got return visits. One of them seems very promising. Its still hard though because I still haven´t had like an investigator that has made the jump or anything. I´m really trying hard to have patience and I know that everything will be well in time, but its also frustrating when you can see how much the gospel could help their lives but they just don´t want to do the simple things. I´m sure you both know exactly what I´m talking about, as I´m sure you had to deal with that with us as kids for things.

My companion and I get along really well. I´m lucky I got such a good companion as my trainer. Its good cause I can actually help him with some things as well because he´s a little disorganized and forgetful, so I don´t just feel like a puppy dog following him around but like I´m actually helping. And he´s really helping me a lot.

Thank you for the prayers and letters. They all really really mean a lot. Mom, your letter pretty was funny with the thing about the concert haha. Once again please tell Emma and Zoey Happy birthday for me. I´m going to make the best cards I can and send them out tomorrow, I feel stupid for not taking care of it earlier.I think it takes about3 weeks for letters to get there… so ya, they´ll probably forget what they´re even for but I still need to send them out. I hope Telly does well with Benjamin here in the next week or so. I pray for her and starla a lot with their pregnancies.

The beginning of this week was actually pretty hard, being a little homesick and stuff, but I always am happy at the end of the days, its usually just in the mornings where I´m homesick or don´t want to do stuff but I still do and I´m good by the end of the day. The people here are good people. I mean, there´s the rude people and the nice people, I dunno, people are people. They´re really the same I feel. They just live in slightly different circumstances.

Oh, one blessing I have here that I´ve noticed, is with my taste haha. I´ve been praying that I´ll be able to enjoy the food ehre and everything and I have. Its been great. Yesterday we actually had corn on the cob, but we also had tuna fish, which you know I hate, but they serve everything with lime and you just squeeze lime juice on stuff and it tastes fine haha. The only thing I haven´t really liked is their olives, they call them tuna, but their spicy and weird and kinda gross.

But I´m running out of time so I need to send this off. I love you all so much. Say hi to Julie for me. Hi to everyone else who will read this, and thank you for the love and support. I know I´m doing the right thing while I´m out here, but I do miss all of you and am excited for when I will see you again. Keep praying for me Lots of Love! because I need it a lot.

Elder Luke Skene